Meaning of Life, Human Nature, and Delusions
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-70400-5 (ISBN)
Whatever are your beliefs, background, education, political views or interests, one thing is sure: this book will engage you, teach you something new, and more importantly make you to re-think deeply about critical aspects of your daily-life, including sex, love, food, physical activities, diseases, work and stress, and how you see and deal with other people, other animals, and the planet in general. Indeed, it focuses on topics that have fascinated people from all places and historical periods since times immemorial: Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Are we progressing, and will we thrive? It does this by integrating in a unique fashion information from ancient Greek, Sumerian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim texts to high-tech brain research, facts about near-death experiences, Covid-19, QAnon conspiracies, virtual reality and dating aps; from Adam and Eve to the rise of misogyny and racism to Black Lives Matter, Me-Too, Hollywood romantic movies and Disney fairy-tales. Contrary to notions about 'human progress' and 'Homo Deus' defended by authors such as Harari, Pinker and Dawkins, it shows that human history instead involves the repetition of similar imaginary tales created by a combination of traits found in other animals and the uniquely human obsession about 'cosmic purpose' stories related to our awareness of death's inevitability. Organized religions appeared later, chiefly during the rise of agriculture and 'civilizations'. Diogo navigates mesmerizing untold stories revealing a paradox: these events and the industrial 'revolution' increased inequality, oppression, slavery, subjugation of women, famines, plagues, 'work', stress, and suicides. Data from psychology, biology, neurobiology, and cross-cultural studies of hunter-gatherers and so-called 'developed' societies reveal an even more profound paradox: within all forms of life, the 'sapient being' is the one immersed in Neverland's world of unreality - truly a Homo irrationalis, fictus and socialis believing in fictional tales about cosmic 'duties', 'romantic meant to be', demons, inferior 'races' and 'genders', conspiracies, and 'justified' slavery, warfare, genocides, and animal abuses. Importantly, such tales play, on the other hand, crucial functions such as help coping with death and a plethora of societal troubles, decreasing stress, or preventing drug and alcohol abuse. An optimist and passionate wondered and wanderer, Diogo provides enthralling details about the history of religion, discrimination, romantic love, warfare, diseases and Earth's biodiversity illustrating how 'virtue is in the middle' and that we - with our intriguing combination of beliefs, bodily needs and desires, artistic abilities, and mismatches between our senses' illusions and the cosmos' reality - are not 'better' or 'worse' than the other millions of captivating living species. This powerful and urgently needed message has critical repercussions for how we understand, care about, and mindfully enjoy living in this splendid planet, in the reality of here and now.
Pre-publication comments:
"I applaud the enormous work that Diogo has invested in this follow-up to his widely acclaimed Evolution driven by organismal behavior book, and the challenge of getting people to think beyond and outside of our usual set of definitions and expectations. The case-studies provided in the book are fascinating and insightful" (Drew Noden, Award-winning Emeritus Professor, Cornell University)
"Rui Diogo is becoming the Slavoj Zizek of evolutionary biology" (Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra, Director of the Paleontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich)
Rui Diogo is a Fellow of the American Association of Anatomists, and an Associate Professor at the Howard University College of Medicine and a Resource Faculty at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of George Washington University (US). He is the author or co-author of numerous publications, and the co-editor of the books Catfishes and Gonorynchiformes and ostariophysan interrelationships. He is the sole author or first author of the books Morphological evolution, aptations, homoplasies, constraints and evolutionary trends; The origin of higher clades; Muscles of vertebrates; Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of Gorilla; Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of gibbons and siamangs (Hylobates);Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of orangutans; Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of a baby gorilla; Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of chimpanzees; Comparative anatomy and phylogeny of primate muscles and human evolution; Learning and understanding human anatomy and pathology: an evolutionary and developmental guide for medical students; and the new book being now published by Springer, Evolution Driven by Organismal Behavior.
Standing on the shoulders of farsighted humans
Book dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Boxes Preface1 Introduction1.1 Standing on the shoulders of others: a book of thousand different voices1.2 Notes on interdisciplinarity2 Death and cosmic purpose of life2.1 Quests to find a cosmic purpose of life2.2 Beliefs, religion, and evolution2.3 Fear of death, purpose, human evolution, and discrimination 2.4 Teleology, morality, organized religions, and advantages of believing 2.5 Beliefs, atheism, and spirituality3 Our place in nature, progress, racism and eugenics3.1 'Progress', racism and quests to understand our place in nature3.2 Cultural, or 'epigenetic', versus innate, or 'genetic', notions of race3.3 Aristotle, Galen, monkeys, human anatomy, and Chain of Being 3.4 Apes and rise of innate notions of 'race' such as white supremacy3.5 Apish-humans, Malthus and Darwin's 'struggle-for-life', Freud's psychoanalysis, and eugenics3.6 Medical experimentation, 'progress', eugenics, and genocide 4 Myths and reality about 'savages' and 'civilization'
4.1 'Savages', 'civilization' and inequality4.2 Agriculture, labor, slavery, leisure, health and 'progress' 4.3. Hobbes, Rousseau's 'Noble Savage', and violence
5 Sex, love, marriage, 'meant to be', and misogyny5.1 Teleological stories, homosexuality, romantic love, sex, and marriage5.2 Agriculture, religion, 'original sin', monogamy, and misogyny5.3 Women, men, sexual desire and orgasms5.4 Sex at dawn, Sex at dusk, scientific biases, 'traditional societies', and jealousy5.5 History of marriage, love and sex, and links to health and happiness5.6 Misogyny, history, teleology, religion, and Hypatia of Alexandria5.7 Myths and facts concerning narratives on gender differences and roles
6 Darwin, capitalism, 'social Darwinism', colonialism, and beliefs
6.1 Darwin, Darwinism, idealization, adaptationism, and just-so-stories6.2 Purpose, struggle-for-life, selfish genes, straw-men and suicide6.3 'Progress', 'higher' or 'favored' groups, racism, misogyny, and capitalism6.4 Teleological narratives, 'savages', colonialism, slavery, and neo-colonialism7 Brains, conspiracies, witches, monsters, wars and animal abuse
7.1 Brains, behavior, genes, and religions7.2 Randomness, lack of control, conspiracy theories, and political beliefs7.3 Witches, sexuality, misogyny, religion, magic, and QAnon conspiracies7.4 Teleological tales, violence, and torture7.5 Homo irrationalis, ideology, war, terrorism and mass killings7.6 'Savages', 'civilization', animal abuse, Enlightenment and humanism7.7 'Monsters', disabilities, 'mother's fault', God's visitation, and mass murder8 'Progress', morality, truth, 'good' and 'evil'
8.1 Morality, 'human exceptionalism', 'progress', revolutions, and health8.2 'Noble savages', 'good', 'evil', technologic development, and loneliness 8.3 Affluence, abundance, growth and inequity, quality of life and euthanasia8.4 Rousseau, Hobbes, biases, and 'civilization'8.5 Child mortality, sex, atrocities, wellbeing, unlimited wants, and our planet
9 Towards a fulfilling life in this splendid, non-purposeful, planet
9.1 Nature, nurture, religion, enculturation, self-domestication and self-punishment 9.2. Homo irrationalis, socialis et fictus in Neverland: unreality, illusions and delusions9.3 No need for better angels, economic fairytales, nor new teleological narratives and illusions9.4 Medicine, wellbeing, and the price we pay for Neverland, alternative facts, and fake news9.5 Lucretius, Epicurus, Sagan, Gould: towards a fulfilling life in a splendid non-purposeful cosmos
References and suggestions for further reading
Figure creditsIndex
| Erscheinungsdatum | 16.12.2021 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | XXI, 863 p. 120 illus., 79 illus. in color. |
| Verlagsort | Cham |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 155 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 1490 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Naturwissenschaft |
| Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie | |
| Schlagworte | Animal Abuse • Colonialism • colonialism chain of being • Eugenics • human behavior • Human behavioral evolution • Human Evolution • life purpose • Racism • Teleology • teleology racism • Why-questions |
| ISBN-10 | 3-319-70400-1 / 3319704001 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-3-319-70400-5 / 9783319704005 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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